Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Trying something new... now members can login and collect "crowns" that they can bestow upon other members' dolls to show that they like them. I was wondering if you guys had any thoughts on the system? Login and give it a whirl :D

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Just wanted to tell everyone that I'm hard at work. Between blog posts, facebook comments, deviantArt comments and e-mails, I've had to pull back or else I wouldn't have any time to actually make games.

It is a funny thing, this doll. The Showtime TV series is, of course, based on the real Tudor dynasty. However, the costume designer took liberty with the costumes. I was reading something to the effect that she wanted to audience to think "Oh, how beautiful!" rather than "Oh, how strange." Apparently purists are angry, but I think it made a lot of sense. The real Tudor costumes don't have that much variety, and some of those head doodads are straight up ugly. That being said, I hate for things not to be accurate, so I've been making sure that the staples of real Tudor fashion are in the game too.

Because now I'm watching Game of Thrones, and I notice that they, even being a fantasy series, seem much more adherent to real fashions. I constantly find myself saying "Oh, look, he's wearing a leather jerkin over a doublet... again". (I've learned a lot of new terms doing research for this game). So.. I dunno.. It's just neat I guess.

Friday, May 13, 2011

SO EXCITED!!! I HAVE A LOGO!!! XDProps go to my sister for suggesting a tiara. I got to sketching and came up with that thingy in the picture.

So yeah.. day 3 in the design trenches. Got the background, logo, colour scheme. Now it's just about the layout. Where to place ads? Where to place navigational tools? Where to place login buttons?

YES I'm going to have a Random Game button... So don't worry ^_^

At this point I need feedback of that sort...How are you finding the site navigation currently?How do you find the current categories?How can I make it easier for you to find the game you want?Also, do you mostly go on the site looking for new games? Looking for favourite old games? Looking for game suggestions?Are there some ad placements you hate more than others?

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Google sent me a little spring bonus of its own yesterday. There's a new rule about how to place ads that has been implemented to prevent accidental clicks even further. It's pretty drastic and basically I have to re-design the entire site.

Also, you're probably wondering what's happening to those new site features. They're on the way and they're super awesome! :D

We're getting very close to sending it out to the testers, but it'll be another week or two.

Both of those mean an opportunity/necessity to overhaul the site.

What needs to go?

What needs to be added?

Post links of any/all sites that you like and tell me what you like about them (not just dress up sites.. any sites that have well designed features).

Let's brain storm! =D

*******************************************EDIT: What do you think about this:

Sunday, May 8, 2011

A few months ago a friend of mine who also develops games in Vancouver, was looking for an artist. I recommended some of the lovely people I've had the privilege of collaborating with on dress ups, and he ended up working with Claudia, aka Madmoiselleclau, who you'll recognize as the artist behind the Princess Maker ^_^

Download the free demo and give it a try! As you progress, you unlock new beautiful backgrounds by Claudia that you can use as your desktop backgrounds =DAlso, check out Claudia's blog for a special bonus ;)

Saturday, May 7, 2011

So the unthinkable happened and I had some down time. I needed something totally frivolous to do, so I started working on the Angel Maker. The artwork was at a high resolution and incorporated into Flash so smoothly, that I had the game halfway done in one day! Then I was on a roll and just had to push through until I finished it. I set a new record for game making for sure: THREE DAYS :OThe average is a month, and Airbender took like 6 months O_o

You'll notice I also posted another game: Nyan Cat FLY!It's a game my boyfriend made XDIt's obviously a bit different from the usual Doll Divine stuff, but technically it has an Animal Maker component hehe. What do you think? Can anyone beat my score? I'm "OLa" on the scoreboard :P

Monday, March 28, 2011

To clarify, I'm not mad that there aren't many women.. I just find it intriguing. And some people say that it's because it's a boys' club, but I haven't found that. I feel more like a hot commodity than a reject in the game development community (from my experience so far).

I definitely agree about the "no fighting". Some girls do like fighting, but they're already catered to, kind of. I'm more curious about those who are looking for something new.

But let's think about totally new stuff.. Like, I've always dreamed about a castle building game, somewhat similar to what Larissa just described. You design a castle, but not to prepare it for battle, just for the fun of it! And maybe the challenges are technological... and you have to combine materials in new ways to unlock new structural possibilities to make towers that can stick out of cliffs etc.

Like someone said, I've also always preferred the character creation part of games. I often lose interest after that. I guess that's why Makers are so popular ^_^ I love Age of Empires right up until you have to fight.

There's gotta be a way to expand on that.. What else could Makers (dress ups) do?

What about dating sims? But quality ones, geared at girls/women? I think there's a lot more demand than anyone suspects (and a lack of high quality supply).

Like, what about an immersive adventure-game-style dating sim with Disney-quality graphics? I'd be down with that... Rachel, I know what you mean about games being geared at women focusing on stereotypical things, but I think if such a game was actually designed by a woman it would be quite different from the crap that's out there now.

And yeah, I actually agree that games shouldn't have to be geared "at women". When I say women, I more mean people who aren't into shooting games, which just happen to mostly (but not all) be women.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

So I'm back from the Game Developers Conference. One thing that was very apparent is that there are very few women in game development. Like, very few. I finally found a group of women at one point and tried to chat them up and it turned out they worked for the conference >_<

Thank goodness I got to hang out a bit with Heather from emeraldactivities.com ^_^

Not that I mind... I had a blast lol. But it just makes one think about women and games. They keep talking about trying to tap the female market but they keep failing, probably because the majority of games are made by men and men are not women.

What do you guys think about that?What kind of other games do you play? Are there games you wished existed but don't?

Monday, March 14, 2011

I've been too busy to keep up with correspondence, and I'm putting any available time straight into hardcore game development. To apologize, I'm posting a sneak peak of the Princess Maker on the blog only!

Friday, February 11, 2011

One thing's clear, which surprised me, is just how much everyone wants to see the future games area expanded. That's cool.. What about even more like, in-progress screen shots or webcams of me working? hahahaI've also been toying with the idea of Livestreaming, so that people can watch me work in real time.. what do u think?

Also, with this feedback, we're gonna start working on a test version of the new site features. If you have spare time, and want an early peek, we're gonna need some testers! Please e-mail me at ola.rogula@gmail.com and put "SITE BETA TESTER" in the subject line. Hopefully within a month we'll have something up and I'll send you guys the link to try it out!

Haha and yeah Tudors is going ahead! I wasn't trying to keep it a secret or anything, just hadn't re-organized the front page for a while ~

Sunday, January 30, 2011

I've had the privilege to meet an amazing web developer who's interested in working with me. Do you guys remember way back I was thinking of adding stuff to the site like comments and polls? But through an external site? Well, this guy can program anything from scratch... ANYTHING O_O

So, let's let our imaginations run wild!...in a world where ANYthing's possible...Have you ever finished a doll and thought "Boy, I sure wish that now I could... [____]"?...what were you thinking?...Have you ever loaded the site and thought "Gee, I sure wish I knew... [____]"?...what were you wondering?...Have you ever gotten frustrated and thought "Grrr, I wish Doll Divine had the [____] feature, the way that [_____].com does!"...what seemed to be missing?...

I don't want it to be THE next social networking site. But, I want it to be the ultimate experience for those that love making dolls. Please, sit back, close your eyes, and picture logging into the wickedest doll site ever. What would it offer you? Let me know! Hopefully we can make it happen! =D

~OLaPS. no more genetics for ATLA guys.. The next two months of my life are swamped (luckily this time, with Doll Divine related things, but still) and I need to make more games!PPS. I see we gots some drama on the last post, and I don't have time to intervene directly this time but thank you to those standing up for me, and to those brave enough to give me honest feedback! You're all wonderful! <3PPPS. I gots some programming help, and there are actually 3 games being worked on at once, so there'll be a flood of new stuff soon! :D

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The bad news is that the only way I'm gonna get through this Scene Maker is by focusing only on the most important parts and cutting out a lot of the items. Alisa has drawn sooo many gorgeous items and I would love to include them all, but I'm just not physically capable lol. I've bitten off more than I can chew... I admit it XD

So I'm gonna give you guys a chance to vote for your favourite items to make it into the game!